The Pedestrian Friendly Road

During my 40 years of life, there are a lot of events that have shaped who I am and how I think.  One of those events happened when I was in grammer school when I was about 10 years old.  We had a snow storm and had off from school.  When we returned to school, we learned that one of the boys in our school, who was about a year or 2 older than me, had died.  He was sleigh-riding down his neighborhood sidewalk and a car did not see him.  He was hit & killed.  I don't go to church that often, but when I do go, to this day, he is still on my list of people in heaven to say hello to and wish a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter. 
30 years later, that incident still sits in my head.  When I drive my gigantic SUV, I try to take extra caution to look around at my surroundings, especially when I have to back out of my longer than average driveway.  I try to be extra observant when driving thru the neighborhood.  And I will always protect my children, and the neighborhood children, from speedy drivers on neighborhood streets.  I have made a few enemies in the neighborhood voicing my opinion about their unsafe driving.  I am not proud of the enemies I have made, but I believe in the safety of a pedestrian, most especially children.
An avid runner and a mother of 3, I have been pushing a jog stroller for 9 years now.  I can not tell you how many times a driver appears to have no idea that there is a pedestrian close to their vehicle.  Drivers speed.  They don't look.  I do not like when a driver approaches a stop sign, wanting to turn right.  Instead of stopping and looking left, right, left, right and then left again, they simply roll thru the stop sign only looking left as they turn right...then suddenly they jerk the steering wheel because they are startled to see that there is a pedestrian on their right.  If you would LOOK, you would see me, and my child(ren) in the jog stroller.  I believe that pedestrians should have the right of way.
So the other day, I was out running around a lake front neighborhood.  No jog stroller, aahhh, just me.  As I can around a bend, I could see up ahead a family of ducks waddling in a single file line across the road.  Two BIG ducks and 4 or 5 baby ducks.  Having been bit twice by dogs and chased a few times, I instantly went into my "Panic-Think" mode.  How do I get past these ducks?  Do I stop and wait for them to cross the road?  Will they chase after me?  I am not even sure if these ducks can fly.  I mean, I have seen ducks flap their wings enough to skim across water, but I haven't personally seen this type of duck flying high thru the sky.  Do I run in front of them or in between them?  Who has the right of way...me or the ducks?
Well, much to my surprise, the ducks saw me coming and they stopped.  I slowed, not sure what to do.  The ducks continued to stay still and look at me.  So, I proceeded to run past them.  They never moved.  They just watched.  The 2 big ducks, the baby ducks...all of them patiently waited for me to run past them and then they quacked and continued their waddling journey across the road.
So, drivers take note....learn from the ducks...remember to help make your neighborhood a Pedestrian Friendly Road.

A good laugh

So our 5 year old is terrified of Mascots.  Whether it is a mascot dressed head to toe in a costume or a mascot with a "real face,"  (like a Disney Princess) she is terrified.  She will ask me to call ahead to Chick-Fil-A and ask if the Cow is there and if he is, she would like me to ask if he could leave and go out for awhile so she can come eat there.  Last year while we where at Disney, we had reservations to have Breakfast with The Princesses.  Well, she took one look at them and she screamed and cried so hard she turned purple and went running out of the restaurant and never came back in to eat.  So this year in anticipation of our annual trip to Disney, she asked if we were eating with the Princesses.  I told her no because I know she is scared of them.  A few hours later, she came to me and asked, "Mommy, I really want to eat with The Princesses, but I am so scared of them.  Do you think you could dress up as a mascot and we could practice having a tea party and then maybe I won't be so scared?"  I said, "Oh Ella, I am not sure mommy can find a costume to dress up in before we leave for our trip."  She said, yes you can, all you have to do is ask Daddy to bring one of our mascot costumes home from his baseball teams and you can dress up as Slugger or Tommy and we can practice having a tea party...and then I won't be so scared.  I was speechless....can you just see me sitting there dressed as Slugger sipping tea?  Not sure what Slugger or Tommy look like?....check out http://www.wilsontobs.com/ or http://www.hitoms.com/ so see Slugger and Tommy.

The Irish girl that I am, I love St. Patrick's Day.  I really love all holidays to be honest, but I am Irish and I do love St. Patrick's Day.  Having 3 girls, however, there is always some pink somewhere to be found...even for a holiday that is dedicated to being Green!  So, my girls and I created these Preppy Leprechaun Cupcakes.  Made with a brownie cupcake, we topped them with pink icing and some cute little Leprechaun decorations from Meri Meri that my mom sent to us.  I have this thing against red food coloring because once upon a time I told the Dr. that the Benadryl that he clearly said would cause drowsiness in my 2 year old caused my child to be more energetic than a bouncy ball.  When I brought this to his attention, he told me that sometimes the red dye in medicines has that effect on children so I needed to only buy grape flavor medicine from now on.  I have no idea if there is any truth to that, but I do know that I only buy dye free, completely colorless medicine to this day...7 years later.  So when it comes to baking, I steer clear of red dye because I have decided that anything with red dye causes craziness in children.  So, to make our icing pink, we pureed strawberries and then put the puree thru a seive.  We then added the now seedless smooth strawberry puree to our icing and whala....The Preppy Leprechaun Cupcakes are ready for St. Patrick's Day!  My poor husband who is a complete baseball guy just sort of shakes his head as once again, even on a day when he might have a chance to exchange his pink desserts for something green, we serve him some Pink!

For those of you looking for a fun and festive dessert idea for St. Patrick's Day, here is a simple idea that can even be made ahead....St. Patty's Dessert.  I used a mint stuffed Oreo Cookie, topped it with an ice-cream scoop of vanilla ice-cream topped with some lucky green sprinkles, a sprig of mint and a green m&m.  When I am having a party, I like to do as much of the work ahead of time as possible, so what I would recommend is that you line a container or tray with cupcake wrappers and pre-scoop your ice-cream balls putting one rounded ball into each cupcake liner.  Store in freezer.  That way the day of the party all you have to do is put the Oreo's on individual dessert plates and top with the pre-scooped ice-cream and add the m&m and mint sprig.  These also make great desserts for children.  Enjoy!

Friday Fun-dae

Happy Friday!  With the unseasonably warm weather and my preschooler home because of a teacher workday, we couldn't help but make these Friday Fun-dae's! 

So super simple and supper yummy, you can build off this idea to create your very own.  I used store bought ice-cream sandwiches and we cut them in half simply because I like a square shape better than a rectangle shape.  Then my 5 year old dipped the sides of the sandwiches in a bowl of sprinkles.  You could also use mini chocolate chips, coconut, crushed candy, diced strawberries or whatever your favorite ice-cream topping is.  The we topped the sandwiches with a cherry and stuck a pinwheel in it.  I stocked up on these pinwheels from Pier One Imports last summer...I have found Pier One Imports to have fun little drink decorations that I find to be multi-purposeful at a very reasonable cost.  In place of the cherry, you could use a sliced strawberry or a blue berry...the possiblities are in the hands of your imagination!  Happy Friday everyone!

Hi!  For those of you who don't know me, I just recently turned 40!  And for those of you who follow my posts on Facebook, you know that it was this sort of dreaded anticipation of the big day.  What would the 27th square on my January calendar have in store for me?  People look at me and ask, "How did you get to be 40?"  Or they say, "40 is the new 30."  Then there were those that would say, "You don't look 40."  7 days before my 40th birthday, I was carded at the liquor store!  Ha!  As I approached the big 40, I had this sense of unsettlement.  Where am I with my life at 40?  I struggled alot with that question.  I mean afterall, when my mom and dad were 40, I was in high school.  I even inherited my mother's brand new Cadillac when I went to college with the license plate that said, 39 4evr.  Here I am at 39, my husband 42, and we have a 1 year old, a 5 year old and a 9 year old.  I mean, really, our youngest hasn't even started preschool...as a matter of fact, she is wait listed.  When my parents were 40, I was wait listed at college, not preschool!  Anyway, I was very frazzled about the big 4o.  My parents started off the month by throwing me a surprise party with my family.  It was a big surprise and very special.  Later in the month, my friends threw me a super fun party.  But still, I just couldn't get excited about my birthday.  How would I feel when I woke up and was 40?  As many of you know, I am a planner...I color code my calendar, I color code hangers, I color code files...I don't like there ever to be a question of what the plan is....I am not good at rolling with the punches or going with the flow.  And so I became increasingly more unsettled when no details of how I would ring in this big day were being inked on the 27th square of the January calendar.  I just wanted the birthday to go away.  But as we all know, we can't make time stand still...(although I am hoping all these expensive facial creams will make the aging process stand still)...time marches on.  And so the big 40 arrived.
Much to my surprise, it was a day full of surprises....so many surprises and so much excitment that it was actually one of the best days of my life!  My children know that real balloons scare me so they made paper balloons and hung them around the kitchen.  My mom and dad, and brothers and Hope and Aunt showing up in town to help celebrate the big day.  My husband gave me a cruise leaving 6 am the next day.  He arranged for everyone to go to dinner.  All these surprises and all this thought...It was at this moment that I was reminded, I am lucky.  So many people care about me and so many people wanted to make sure I had the best birthday.  I felt rich with love.  Rich with happiness.  Rich with laughter.  Rich with family and friends.  I felt lucky.  I felt very happy and I felt complete. 
So, here I am...the big 40.  What would I do in the next chapter of my life?  So I started to think.  I decided today to start a blog.  I thought that it was ironic that I decided to start this blog today and realized it was the 21st square on the calendar...lucky 21!  But what would I call my blog?  What would I blog?  So I started to think some more...I am married, I have 3 children and I work with my husband...yikes!  :)  But my passion is planning parties, Dinner parties, Birthday parties, Playdates...I like to plan my children's and my husband's lunch boxes.  I love to cook and bake and create crafty projects.  I like to make people feel happy.  When I plan a dinner or a birthday party or a playdate, I want people to walk away with a fun memory...a memory of a special detail or a memory of dresing up like princesses and having tea or a memory of making a keepsake craft project.  So I decided that is what my blog will be...I will share my little ideas, my party planning tips, my favorite recipes...except my cookie icing recipe...I will share my creative ideas in hopes of helping people create those same happy memories.  I will also share some of my everyday life...another fear of mine is being alone...I don't like to be alone and I don't ever want anyone to feel alone...so sometimes I feel that if I share some story from my day, I will make someone else realize that they are not alone when their child throws a terrible tantrum right in the middle of the store.  I will share stories like when my 5 year old said to the worker at the house...excuse me, I think we have a problem...you are making the rug just a little dirty, I think you are going to need to clean that up.  Or when I drove into my garage for the 7th time in 5 months...did I really insist that I get this gigantic SUV?! 
But what would I call my blog?  I thought of a few names, but they were taken.  I started to think about some of my favorite things, my favorite colors...pink, blue, yellow....green...hmmm, green.  I began to think about green and what I love about green.  I thought about how I love the herb mint.  And then I got side tracked by this little voice inside of me saying, that was a mint of an idea.  I thought about the mint in my mom and dads garden and how it grows and grows and just prospers throughout the garden...so rich in color and fragrent in smell.  The smell of mint makes me happy.  I thought about how I aspire every year to grow mint in my garden just like my parents.  And there it was...The Minted Idea.  I hope to aspire people.  I hope to help you grow your ideas.  I hope you will help me grow and prosper as a planner.  I hope that you will follow along in the next chapter of my life and together we will continue to create, prosper and grow a Mint of an Idea.

Happy Planning!

Heather